The use of wireless communication systems and their interconnections via networks have grown rapidly in recent years. Because radio frequency (RF) waves can penetrate obstacles, wireless devices can communicate with no direct line-of-sight between them. This makes RF communication easier to use than wired or infrared communication, but it also makes hacking and disrupting wireless RF communication easier than wired communication. For example, RF communications are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, when an attacker secretly relays and possibly alters the communication between two devices (such as a paired Bluetooth device) who are made to believe they are directly communicating with each other. A relay attack is a type of MITM attack, where two transceivers are used, one near each element of the system under attack. Relay attacks may be performed by intercepting communication symbols and replaying at least a portion of the symbols. Because wireless RF communication can suffer from these threats, additional countermeasures are needed to protect against them.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the figures.